WEEK 4 (thru Thursday)

Badger Bob has turned up the heat on the previously-coasting Wild Ducks, defenseman Mark Giordano (1g, 1a) pacing his team’s 15.8 point attack, the 2nd place Bobs moving to within 14.2 points of 1st place.

Badger Bob: 27.5
Central Red Army: 32.6­
The good news for Badger Bob ended with their assault on 1st place. The rest was bad news as their Week 4 opponent recorded the best Thursday score, Leon Draisaitl (2g, 1a) lifting the Central Red Army to a league-best 16.8 points, GM Buker and his troops now camped on a 5.1 point cushion.

Wild Ducks: 35.6
Ice Hogs: 21.9­
The Ice Hogs continue to hack away at the Wild Ducks once substantial lead, Alex Pietrangelo’s 4th goal of the season guiding the Hogs to a solid 9.0 point showing, GM Henry’s upset-minded squad now trailing the wobbling Ducks by just 13.7 points.

Polar Bears: 20.2
Rocky Rocks: 26.7
Playing shorthanded with Mikko Rantanen on the shelf, Rocky Rocks continues to fend-off the Polar Bears. The Bears however appear to have woken from their three-day nap, GM Elya’s squad clawing their way to within 6.5 points of a come-from-behind win.

Misconducts: 25.9
Vegas Vipers: 19.1­
The Vegas Vipers hopes of winning a match took another hit on Thursday, GM Smally’s 8.9 points overshadowing the 5.0 collected by GM Miller, the Misconducts lead now 6.8 points with three days remaining in the week.

Boulder Flyers: 11.9
SC Cobras: 27.9­
The Boulder Flyers brought a healthy contingent of players to Thursday and all skated away with Nopoints Disease, the Flyers departing the arena with their feathered tail tucked between their legs. The SC Cobras meanwhile exploded for 15.2 points, Evander Kane (2g) and Pekka Rinne (26 save shutout) placing the snakes 16.0 points in front of their basement-drifting opponent.

Bluliners: 21.9
Cherry Pickers: 12.0
One week after posting a league-best 76.4 points, the Cherry Pickers are having a difficult time locating anything that looks like a number, a paltry 4.0 point offering dropping GM Recoskie and his dried cherries 9.9 points behind the also-struggling Bluliners.

LINK: Standings

As we know, the fantasy puck can be fickle.

Sometimes, it bounces for you. The hat trick by Bo Horvat of Vancouver and the Wild Ducks an example.

Horvat a better-than-average player. I think we can agree on that. But prior to the hat trick, he had just one goal and one assist.

Sometimes, the fantasy puck does not bounce for you. Two examples for B2 last night.

Miro Heiskanen was originally credited with an assist on the first Dallas goal. Checked back later in the evening to find that the assist had been chalked as they say in the England Premier Soccer League. They really should say erased.

Then to conclude the evening, Darnell Nurse was the third skater on for Edmonton as the Oilers defeated Washington in overtime, 4-3.

A goal by Leon Draisaitl pushed him into bonus points for the current B2 opponent, Central Red Army.

The assist for Connor McDavid pushed him into bonus points for Polar Bears.

But no assist for Nurse, which would have pushed him into bonus points since he scored a goal during regulation time.

But all was not lost for B2. The Draisaitl goal made Mikko Koskinen of B2 the winning goaltender -- a gain of 2.5 points (25 saves).

Am thinking occurrences and non-occurences similar to what I described above happen in the FHL more frequently than one might think.

Just so happened I was in front of laptop on and off last evening. On during the conclusion of Washington at Edmonton.

No way for MorganWigge to be able to deal with this level of detail in his write-ups. But it adds to the intrigue of the fantasy game for me.

Of course it is much appreciated when the fantasy puck bounces favorably.